Victim's family details heartbreak as ex-nurse is sentenced to prison without chance of parole

Verna McClain is led into the courtroom before entering a guilty plea for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courthourse after entering a guilty plea in a Montgomery County courtroom for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courtroom after entering a guilty plea for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courtroom after entering a guilty plea for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courtroom after entering a guilty plea for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courthourse after entering a guilty plea in a Montgomery County courtroom for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courtroom after entering a guilty plea for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Linda Golden embraces supporters following a guilty plea by her daughter's killer, Verna McClain, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused in the April 2012 shooting death of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt. McClain shot and killed the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courthourse after entering a guilty plea in a Montgomery County courtroom for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Verna McClain is led from the courtroom after entering a guilty plea for the April 2012 slaying of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused of fatally shooting the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon speaks to the media following a guilty plea by Verna McClain on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused in the April 2012 shooting death of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt. McClain shot and killed the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Linda Golden speaks to the media following a guilty plea by her daughter's killer, Verna McClain, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, in Conroe. McClain was accused in the April 2012 shooting death of 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt. McClain shot and killed the new mother outside a pediatric clinic in Spring and snatching her 3-day-old son, Keegan. He later was found safe with McClain's sister.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Staff

Linda Golden embraces supporters after a guilty plea by her daughter's killer.

Photo By Brett Coomer/Staff

Verna McClain entered a guilty plea in a Conroe courtroom Tuesday for the 2012 slaying of Kala Golden-Schuchardt and abduction of the woman's 3-day-old son.

CONROE - Speaking in a bare whisper, Verna McClain on Tuesday admitted to the 2012 kidnapping of a 3-day-old baby and fatal shooting of his mother in a plea bargain arrangement in which she received life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors had originally announced they were seeking the death penalty for the capital murder.

McClain, a 32-year-old nurse, looked distraught as she stood in chains in her pink-striped jail uniform to make her declarations to state District Judge Kelly Case. She made no public comment afterward.

But her attorney, Tyronne Moncriffe, said his client felt remorse as a mother of three children herself, knowing her actions on April 17, 2012, left 28-year-old Kala Marie Golden-Schuchardt's newborn son, Keegan, and his two brothers without a mom.

Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon accused McClain of stalking the woman that day to snatch her infant in the parking lot of a Spring pediatrician's office. She was "fixated," willing to kill to obtain a baby that she could pretend belonged to her and use as a ploy to keep her boyfriend from leaving, he said.

Although McClain will not have an executioner end her life with a lethal drug, she will "wither and die" in prison, and her victim's famly can have the certainty that the verdict will never get overturned on a technicality or appeal, Ligon said.

"The victim's family also got to hear what few in their place do, an admission of guilt," he added.

"No games were played in the courtroom. There was no hiding behind insanity defenses."

While McClain had no prior criminal record, not even a parking ticket, Ligon believes she is all the more dangerous because nobody can predict what she might be capable of doing at any instant.

Yates case factor

Authorities originally said McClain had suffered a miscarriage but had not told her fiance. One of her key defenses might have been similar to what another Houston mother, Andrea Yates, successfully used.

Yates claimed severe post-partum depression led to the drowning of her six children in a bath tub and was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity on appeal in 2006. Yates' attorney, George Parnham, was a consultant on the McClain case.

But Moncriffe, her lead defense attorney, acknowledged there was no real medical evidence that McClain had ever suffered a miscarriage. As a result, he said, making that case would have been very difficult.

In addition, although several of her family members had been diagnosed with mental issues, McClain's attorneys abandoned an insanity defense because she had no history of mental illness. Moncriffe said that since the shooting his client is taking some antidepressants, but not any psychotropic drugs.

The victim's family filled the jury box to witness the guilty plea.

Her mother, Linda Golden, said during an interview on the courthouse steps afterward that she had not heard any apologies from McClain, but she understood that the defendant's mother and three children were suffering, too.

Children miss mother

Golden spoke in a strong voice until she talked about how much her grandchildren miss their mother. "Her 6-year-old screams out her name, cries, and says he misses and loves her so much. Her 3-year-old sees her picture and says, 'That's my Mommy … when is she coming home?' The baby will never know his mother," she said, her eyes filling with tears.

On the day of the shooting, Schuchardt had taken her baby to the pediatric center for a checkup. McClain was waiting in the parking lot with a handgun and shot her several times, authorities said.

Despite her wounds, she tried to save her baby from McClain, investigators said. McClain struck the dying mother with her car as Schuchardt reached into the Lexus screaming, "My baby!"